Page 20 of Sugarplum

“Jules? Babe?” she could hear him calling out to her. She didn’t care. Julie stormed into the bathroom and with tears flowing down her cheeks she quickly changed back into her regular clothes.

“Babe?” Chace called out from the other side of the door. “What’s wrong? I couldn’t hear you. I was on the phone. What were you saying?”

She took the gifts she bought and tossed them into the bathtub. It was up to Chace to clean this all up. As far as she was concerned, he could shove the gag ball down his throat.

“I deserve better than this,” she told herself when she finally pushed out of the bathroom and shoved Chace out of the way.

“Hey! What the heck’s going on?” he demanded as he chased after her. They stormed out of the apartment and it took Chace a moment to catch up to her at the parking lot. Snow was falling and both of them instantly felt the freezing cold. Julie didn’t mind it any attention but it did bother Chace. He eventually reached her right as she was stepping into her car. “What the heck’s wrong with you? Come on, step inside. It’s freezing out here!”

Julie looked at him with fury emanating from her very eyes. She scoffed at his comment. “What the heck’s wrong with me? No; what the heck’s wrong with you? That’s the real question here, you fuck. You’re doing it all over again. It’s just happening again. I can stand out here in the snow all freaking day and it would still be a summer’s day compared to the cold black region of your rotten heart.”

Chace had no clue what she was talking about. He looked at her with a blank expression, confused and unsure of what was happening. “Babe, I was just on the phone and the next thing I know there you are walking out in a fit. Please, just take a moment to explain to me what I’m doing wrong here. Don’t push me away.”

“Chace, babe, you’re the one pushing me away,” she replied. Chace’s jaw dropped but before she could really smack into his face the reality of the situation she merely hopped into the car and slammed the door shut.

Julie pulled the car in reverse and began to make her way out of his garage. Chace did try to stop her, running up to the door and tapping on the window, but before long she was moving too fast and eventually she left him in the middle of the street.

“Fuck you, damn it,” Julie cursed under her breath. “I can’t believe I let a single chance meeting screw me like this. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”

She looked into the rearview mirror and watched as his figure quickly faded. Within minutes she was out of the neighborhood and back into the comfortable realm of the highway. Without looking back she drove straight back home, never stopping for anything, not even gas.

Ned was nowhere to be seen but Melissa was sprawled on the couch watching a horror film. Well, it seemed like a horror film but even with the ten seconds that Julie caught as she arrived it looked more like a cheesy gore-fest with horrible actors and no budget for decent special effects.

“Hey, did the SyFy channel decide to give up and just make movies with their lunch money?” Julie asked her as she sat down beside her. She scooted over and handed Julie her bowl of popcorn. Most of it had already been eaten and what was left was drenched in hot butter and salt.

Julie took a handful of popcorn and stuffed the food in her mouth, hoping she could hide the tears and sobs. Despite her best efforts, Melissa still noticed and quickly sat up to check on her.

Melissa placed a hand on Julie’s shoulder. “Hey, are you okay? What the hell happened to you?”

“Fuck, Mel, it’s happening again,” Julie answered. “It’s happening all over again. Chace doesn’t give a shit about me, I can feel it. He’s just saying all the right things because he doesn’t want to hurt me. He doesn’t me to blame him.”

Melissa raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “Wait, what do you mean? I don’t get it. Start making sense, Jules, because you’re sounding like an alien from the wrong Mars movie.”

Julie hastily wiped her eyes, accidentally smudging her makeup, and then looked at Melissa in remorse and pain. “He’s been staring at that fucking phone all day again. He did it last the other fucking day too.”

“It can’t be that bad, Jules. Maybe you’re just over-thinking things.” Melissa rubbed her hand up and down her back, trying to calm Julie down.

That’s when Julie snapped. “No! I’m not over-thinking this, Mel. I know I can be a little too much to handle at times but not this. The other day he and I were making out and I thought we’d have a good night but then his phone vibrated and lo, and behold, all he did afterwards was chat with his clients. He freaking forgot all about me.”

Melissa still wasn’t buying it. “Maybe it was really important. You know he deals with clients abroad and the like. I mean, if he still runs the same web designing and SEO business since we last got to hang out a few years back. He has to adjust to their time zones – not them to him.”

Julie made a fist and shook it with such force Melissa scooted a bit away. “No, Mel, I’m telling you he was pushing me away. Today I decided to do something different and so I got him a Christmas gift – me in lingerie with furry cuffs and a gag ball. Like come on, how many girls would dress up so kinky for their guys, right? But no – he ignored me and was just on the phone doing business.”

“Girl, if you were wearing anything other than the green sweater he bought for you three years ago even I would bang the living the shit of you. It would be the Fourth of July in December,” Melissa seemed to have gotten Julie’s point. “So what did you do? Just change your clothes and drive out of there like you’re Bonnie and Clyde but without Clyde?”

Julie nodded and wiped off her tears. “He didn’t even have a clue why I was so upset leaving. I tried to tell him again and again that I don’t like it when he closes himself in like that. It pushes me away and I don’t know what to do when I’m just standing there like a helpless bystander instead of being right in his arms, where I should be.”

“I worry about you sometimes,” Melissa replied. “If you keep going like this you might just crack one day and I’ll walk into your room only to find you staring blankly at the wall or mumbling mumbo-jumbo to an imaginary rival.”

“Are you saying I’ve lost my mind?”

Melissa shook her head. “I’m saying you will lose it if you don’t fix this issue with Chace.”

“Fuck Chace,” Julie shot back. “I’d rather go with that pervert, Dorian, than to deal with Chace any further. At least with Dorian I know I’ll get the time and attention I want and need.”

“He’ll also degrade you, call you a slut in public, and he’ll fuck you only to please himself but not you,” Melissa tried to reason with Julie but the latter wasn’t having any of it.

Julie just waved it off. “At least he’d be giving me attention and good sex to boot. I don’t get either from Chace lately and even when we do have sex he always seems to be in such a hurry, like he’ll die if he’s not on that stupid phone of his.”

---